Pro Baseball

Dave Landaker's victory came last week, when he performed the simple task of fielding a ground ball and throwing it to first base. The routine play during a rookie league game last week was momentous for Landaker. The Royal High graduate had played fewer than 10 minor league games in the field since the Houston Astros made him a second-round pick in 1992. Years of sidearm throws from shortstop had turned his right shoulder into mush. Landaker's 1994 season began in mid-June with Kissimmee, Fla.

NEW YORK - Cable-television shows about baseball are as common this time of year as a slow-footed first baseman or a hard-throwing leftie. But what about a series in which studio hosts drool over the big numbers a player puts up on…Twitter? Or cite an All-Star hitter's unexpected approach to… walk-up music? That's the premise of "Off the Bat From the MLB Fan Cave," a pop culture-infused look at America's pastime backed by Major League Baseball and produced and aired by MTV2.

With Madonna and Geena Davis starring as 1940s pro baseball players who overcome sexism and inside fastballs to save America's sagging spirits during World War II, Columbia Pictures' upcoming "A League of Their Own" can't help but be outrageous, audacious and occasionally dramatic. The movie, as odd as it sounds--women playing hardball for a living?--is based on fact. In the long history of professional baseball in this country, women have had their own league only once.

Young men who exercise keep some of the benefits to their bones into old age, even if they don't keep at it, according to researchers who compared the throwing arms and the nonthrowing arms of professional baseball players over time. Bone mass, size and strength increase with physical activity in youth, but it was unclear whether those benefits carried into later years. The researchers looked at the arms of 103 pro baseball players -- major and minor leagues -- and at the arms of 94 “regular” men; they reported their findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

SEATTLE - When cyclist Lance Armstrong was found to have used performance-enhancing drugs last fall, he was publicly disgraced, stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life. When outfielder Melky Cabrera tested positive for PEDs last summer, he was suspended 50 games. Then two months later he was rewarded with a two-year $16-million contract, by far the richest of his career. It's a loophole that has undermined baseball's get-tough approach to drugs and weakened the strongest drug-testing program in U.S. professional team sports.

Lou Ruchser Sr. possibly changed the face of baseball by getting hit on the head. The day after that batting-practice liner nailed him in the temple during 1947 spring training in Cuba, the Brooklyn Dodgers installed protective screens -- which are in use to this day. "My big contribution to pro baseball," he said. The effect of that shot might have been even more profound than he realized at the time.

With Madonna and Geena Davis starring as 1940s pro baseball players who overcome sexism and inside fastballs to save America's sagging spirits during World War II, Columbia Pictures' coming "A League of Their Own" can't help but be outrageous, audacious and occasionally dramatic. The movie, as odd as it sounds--women, playing hardball for a living?--is based on fact. In the long history of professional baseball in this country, women have had their own league only once.

The Dodgers are bracing themselves for the possibility that they could lose Manny Ramirez for the second time this season. Manager Joe Torre said he has already met with General Manager Ned Colletti to discuss their options in the outfield if Ramirez lands on the disabled list. Ramirez, who strained his right hamstring in the Dodgers' second of three games in San Francisco, is scheduled to undergo an MRI exam Thursday morning. "We'll have an evaluation, a decision at that time," Torre said.

The Angels' 2001 draft was supposed to anchor the club for a decade, with three can't-miss players: first baseman Casey Kotchman , catcher Jeff Mathis and third baseman Dallas McPherson . Kotchman cracked the starting lineup in 2007, with an .840 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) that hinted at stardom. Few careers have fizzled as fast. He was traded three times in the last two years, and the Seattle Mariners reduced him to a defensive replacement by acquiring first baseman Justin Smoak in Friday's Cliff Lee trade.

Tuesday and Wednesday: at New York Yankees Thursday through Sunday: at Texas Rangers The Angels embark on a two-week march to the trade deadline, with the front office watching to see if the team treads water or drowns during a 12-game stretch against the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox. The Angels lost six games in July 2008 and seven games in July 2009, but they lost eight of their first 11 games this July. The Angels play four games next weekend in Texas, where they have lost eight of their last 11. Vladimir Guerrero had four hits, including a home run, when the first-place Rangers beat the Angels twice in Arlington in May.

PHOENIX - Shortly after he avoided an arbitration hearing with the Dodgers and agreed to a $4.3-million salary for the upcoming season, Kenley Jansen reflected on how he went from a light-hitting catching prospect to the closer of baseball's most expensive team. "It's unbelievable how stuff works that quick," Jansen said. "Now, a million-dollar contract. That's pretty awesome. " Jansen, 26, was paid $512,000 last season. When he and the Dodgers exchanged salary figures last month, he asked for $5.05 million and the team offered $3.5 million.

BOSTON - At the end of the fourth inning Wednesday night, the Boston Police Department issued a statement reporting that the bars in the Kenmore Square area were filled and telling people without game tickets to leave the area. The sense of anticipation wasn't lost on a community ready to celebrate the Red Sox's first World Series clinching at Fenway Park since 1918 and completely rid themselves of the pain of a last-place finish in the American League East in 2012. The early celebration was understandable after the Red Sox pounced on rookie Michael Wacha for six runs in the first four innings and relied on the strong pitching of John Lackey to cruise to a 6-1 victory and top the St. Louis Cardinals four games to two in the best-of-seven series.

The immediate thought when Michael Wacha gave up a two-run home run to David Ortiz in the sixth inning of his last start Thursday was that the toll of his first full professional season finally had caught up to him. But the St. Louis Cardinals aren't concerned with the stamina of their prized rookie, given the way they've handled him this season and the workload he carried during his junior season at Texas A&M. Wacha, 22, enters Wednesday's...

One of Don Baylor's biggest challenges as the Angels' new hitting coach will be to help Josh Hamilton regain the swing that made him the American League's most valuable player in 2010 but deserted him for the first four months of 2013. "One thing about my style is that we try something for a while, and if that doesn't work, we don't keep pounding our head against something that doesn't work," Baylor, 64, said in a conference call Thursday, a day after his hiring was announced. "I think he's a real key to the offense.

Columnists and reporters from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will be sharing their views with Los Angeles Times readers during the National League Championship Series. By getting all tangled up in (Dodger) blue in Game 3, the Cardinals fumbled away the opportunity to put the champagne on ice in advance of Game 4. There will be no chance of a St. Louis celebration Tuesday, no chance of the Cardinals sweeping the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

BOSTON - When Boston Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino strolls to the plate at Fenway Park, the public-address system blares the opening lyric to his walk-up song: "Don't worry about a thing …" The Red Sox faithful promptly finish the second half of Bob Marley's lyrics, singing in unison: " 'Cause every little thing gonna be all right. " Perhaps no one really believed it late Sunday night, not after right-hander Max Scherzer struck out 13 batters and gave up two hits through seven innings, one day after the Red Sox struck out 17 times and were almost no-hit in Game 1. BOX SCORE: Red Sox 6, Tigers 5 But just when worrying seemed to be back in vogue in Boston, David Ortiz hit a two-out grand slam on the first pitch from Joaquin Benoit in the eighth inning, tying the score, 5-5. The Red Sox won it in the ninth inning on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's single to left field to drive in Jonny Gomes from third base, beating the Detroit Tigers, 6-5, and tying the American League Championship Series at a game apiece.

Manny Ramirez and Russell Martin don't appear headed for the disabled list, Manager Joe Torre said. "I don't think that's a consideration," Torre said. Ramirez was pulled in the first inning on Friday because of tightness in his right calf. Martin was taken out late in the eighth inning of the same game because of a swollen thumb on his catching hand. Of Ramirez, Torre said, "He feels better than yesterday." Before Saturday's game, Torre said Ramirez might be available to pinch-hit, but Ramirez did not make an appearance in the loss to the Cardinals.

Reporting from New York — Scot Shields was just beginning to regain the confidence of Manager Mike Scioscia, the veteran reliever rebounding from a rocky two months to give up one earned run in 11 innings of eight appearances from June 15 to Tuesday. Then came the seventh inning in Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. The Angels had erased five runs of a six-run deficit with the help of Bobby Wilson's two-run homer in the fifth and Hideki Matsui's two-run shot in the sixth, and they threatened to tie or move ahead in the sixth and seventh, leaving the bases loaded in each inning.

BOSTON - The Detroit Tigers' Anibal Sanchez had the kind of night every pitcher dreams of, shutting out the Boston Red Sox without a hit and tying a 105-year-old record in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park. In the end, neither Sanchez nor the Tigers made history, but they managed to sneak out with a 1-0 victory, barely missing out on immortality. Manager Jim Leyland yanked Sanchez after six innings because of a high pitch count generated by 12 strikeouts and six walks, and closer Joaquin Benoit lost the no-hit bid with one out in the ninth.